Page 45 of Finally

“I’m okay. Honestly, I’m just pissed off right now. How dare that asshole try and scare you just to clean up his own mess,” Maddie huffed, then as if he just remembered who was there, turned and shot my mom an apologetic look. “Sorry for my language.”

Mom snorted on the other side of me. “No need to apologize. If that little shit was here, I’d have quite a few choice words of my own.” My eyes widened as I stared at my mom. I’d never heard her cuss before. “Don’t look at me that way. Everyone knows you don’t mess with a mama bear’s cub.”

I gave her a warm smile as I reached for her hand. “I love you, Mom.”

“I love you too,” she whispered, fresh tears filling her eyes.

Carlos continued with his story. “So, Jared tried everything, but nothing had worked. Then I walked up to him during the debate and asked him to come with me. One look at Greg and he knew he’d been caught. Jared told the police that he knew he couldn’t save himself, but he saw one last chance to try and save his wife. He figured if he took you out of the running then he’d still get paid and Colleen would be safe. Of course, that wasn’t how things turned out.”

“Thank God,” Mom murmured.

“So, wait a minute. We know why Jared did all of this now, but who was the person who offered to pay him?” Maddie asked.

“Well, that’s the other crazy part of this story. It was your opponent and our current governor,” Brandon said.

My mouth dropped open and I heard several people gasp. “Holy shit! John Wainwright paid Jared to try and get me to drop out of the race?”

Carlos gave me a solemn nod. “Yep. He’s being questioned by the police as we speak.”

“Oh, God. I’m having trouble wrapping my mind around any of this,” I admitted.

“You aren’t the only one,” Maddie said under his breath.

Just then the doors swung open and a nurse walked out. Maddie and Mom both squeezed my hands. Jared and John and that whole mess were completely forgotten as I hoped to get news about Greg. “Mr. Brooks?” she said, looking around at our group.

“That’s me,” I said, jumping up from my chair.

She smiled at me. “Hi. My name is Lana and I’m Mr. Wright’s nurse. He’s doing very well. He’s got tears in his muscle and tissue that will take some time to heal, but we expect him to be just fine.”

I let out the breath I’d been holding, and my body sagged in relief. “Oh, thank God. Thank you so much. When can I see him?”

Lana glanced over her shoulder. “He’s still sedated, but the doctor said you can go on back.”

I looked over her shoulder and my breath caught when I saw my father looking at me through the tiny window of the doors. I turned to my mom who shrugged her shoulders, giving me a sad smile as tears rolled down her face. “I knew he was working today, and I suspected he might be the one assigned to Greg, but I couldn’t be sure. Your dad loves you so much, Christopher. You and I are his whole world and there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for us. Sometimes, when you love someone like that, it causes you to do really stupid things. He knows he messed up and he’s very sorry. His heart broke when he realized how badly he’d hurt you.” My bottom lip trembled, and she pulled me into a hug. When I glanced back at the swinging doors, my dad was gone.

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